RAMALLAH, West Bank, 14 September 2003 — When Randa Taher heard about Israel’s decision to “remove” her President Yasser Arafat, she went with her two children to camp out at his battered compound to help form a human shield.
“I will be part of human chain to defend him,” Randa, 38, said from her protest tent near the compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, next to a pile of cars crushed in past raids by Israeli armored columns.
She said Israeli forces would have to get past her and her 12-year-old twins Farah and Yazan to seize Arafat. “They cannot expel him. It would be over my dead body,” the civil servant said.
Her declarations were echoed by thousands of Palestinians who rallied to show support for Arafat throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday. Near Hebron, Israeli soldiers attacked stone-throwers but there was no word of casualties. The day marked 10 years since the signing of the Oslo interim accords with Israel that won Palestinians limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and brought the ex-guerrilla leader Arafat to power.
Thursday’s decision by the Israeli security Cabinet to exile him followed two Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 15 people. Israel accuses Arafat of fomenting violence in the three-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence. He denies it, although Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group within his own Fatah movement, has carried out scores of attacks. The Brigades have vowed to redouble operations in Israel and the occupied territories should Israel make good on its threat against Arafat.
Arafat became president of the Palestinian Authority in internationally supervised elections in 1996. He has since weathered growing charges of corruption, not least from Islamist groups who have spearheaded the revolt as his rivals.
Many Palestinians say Israel’s rough handling of Arafat has merely served to bolster his popularity. “He represents our dignity. If he is gone, our dignity goes as well. This is why I am here,” said Halima Abu Al-Dahab, 63, of Jerusalem, like Randa a would-be human shield in Ramallah.
Israel’s hawkish Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ruled out Arafat as a negotiating partner. Arafat said yesterday Israel’s aim in planning to remove him was to eradicate Palestinian self-rule and hopes of independence.
The United States joined in global calls on Israel to reconsider its plan to remove Arafat, fearing it would finish off the tattered “road map” peace initiative. But most Palestinians still blame Washington, Israel’s key ally, for tacitly endorsing the Sharon government.
Arafat appeared in his element yesterday, standing next to two veteran Israeli peace activists at a window in his West Bank headquarters and raising a V-for-victory sign, an AFP correspondent reported.
Among the visitors was a delegation of Israeli peace activists, among them the former left-wing MP Uri Avnery and fellow veteran activist Latif Drori, an AFP correspondent said.
Avnery, who won notoriety for being the first Israeli to meet Arafat after crossing the lines in besieged Beirut in 1982, entered the compound for talks with Arafat, he said. Hundreds of students rallied in central Gaza City yesterday, and Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement called a rally for the evening, an AFP correspondent said.
A leading Palestine Liberation Organization wing warned yesterday that Israel’s threat to expel Arafat would push the region into a new war and “bury alive” the peace process, Jordan’s Petra news agency reported. The Palestine National Council issued the warning at a meeting in Amman attended by vice chairman Taysseer Kobba, Farouk Qaddumi, head of the PLO’s political office and other members.
